the appeal to the moronic masses is obviously imptortant to Gatorola, but my understanding is that the ratio of carbs/water is designed for an athlete who's going flat out, non-stop, for extended periods (>60 mins), and ain't gunna slow down, like a triathlete or a time-trialist. As yooz probably know, gastric emptying is reduced when exercise intensity increases.

So, the carb/water ratio isn't as crucial for a rider who's constantly changing speed during, for eg, a road race with lulls in speed, or a training ride with lots o' variation in speed. When we slow down for a while during a ride, the 6% carbs don't mean shit.:) Guys in long Tour stages aren't getting exactly "6% to 8% of carbs" for the whole stage

FWIW, my thoughts on sport drinks

The keys to hydration are getting an appropriate amount of fluid into the body prior to the event, and learning how much and when to consume more fluid during and after the event. You do this through training, learning how to adapt to different weather conditions, effort levels, states of health/mind, etc. along the way.

Your primary sources of energy are glycogen stores (found in the blood, muscles and liver) and fat stores. Fat stores are difficult to convert into usable energy, so glycogen gets consumed first. Once you run out of glycogen you bonk. The best way to avoid bonking is to load your glycogen stores properly prior to the event, and tune/optimise your body's consumption of glycogen through training that is appropriate for the event that you will be competing in.

Water is useful for hydration. It is also good for helping food down on a big ride, washing lenses on rainy days, cleaning wounds, washing hands, finding punctures, getting even with the plick in front of you in the peleton, getting dust out of the eye, fending off fido, and hydration.

Sport drink is useful for hydration because it contains water. The small amounts of raw carbs and salts may have some fluid uptake benefit for some of the population. The quantities of carbs involved are too small to delay the onset of glycogen depletion, so sport drinks are not an energy source. There is a place for sport drink on the bike alongside the water bidon. There is no real place for sport drink off the bike (unless you're a triathlete, but there's no real place in sport for triathletes! Keep training).

Energy rich foods, sports bars, and gels won't stop you from bonking, they only delay the inevitable. However, they could make the difference between winning a 3 hour event and coming home with your tail between your legs. The best timing and quantities for consumption are learnt during training.

You don't get any benefit from exertion without recovery. SO eat well, keep the fluids up, and get to bed on time. Trust me, you won't miss the Simpsons after the second night.

Blasphemer!

Don't worry expat. At certain levels of training intensity there's probably a little room left for the Simpsons :p

I'm still waiting patiently to be banned for flying in the face of scientific research (funded by soft drink companies?), several years of marketting hype, and ric sterns idiotic advice

[tap][tap][tap][yawn]

He's getting stronger every week!!!

Yes, but I will miss America's Next Top Model and Survivor!

I'm with Nev on this - I always drink a rough 50/50 mix of Gatorade and water. I haven't experiemented with much else because I couldn't be ar$sed and I'm not that interested in becoming some A-Grade freak.

I agree with what you're saying, Jock. 90% of the work is done when you're not on the bike - eating well, drinking water all the time, making sure you load up before a big ride and getting plenty of rest is the key. The consumerist side of 'sports nutrition' is basic insanity on most levels as far as I'm concerned.

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, when I was in my late teens, we just took a couple of bananas on our rides and a couple of bottles of water and off we went for 160+ kms. Sure, sometimes we bonked silly, but that was more a case of trying to ride for 4 hours with 5 hours of sleep and a hangover!

Having said that, being able to get Powerbar stuff for wholesale has at least satiated my latent desire to at least look like a poser.

Ah Ric Stern, he who dealt a swift blow to the rockmucher handle.

so, oh wise jockster, is somthing like endura more relevent? doesnt seem to have a load of sugar, tastes quite salty, has potasium , magnesium and sodium. also i know the gels are more complex carb than somthing like GU, but i odnt know if the drink is like that? it seems to work well for moi, just curious :o

Jock, is that your longest ever post? :p

The main reason I use sports drinks is for the potassium. It's easy to get most of the other ingredients elsewhere, but try buying monpotassium phosphate in powder form at the health food store :) (actually, I haven't checked for a while). I experienced some ocassional, temporary heart arrhythmias about ten years ago which the docter said was mostly caused by anxiety, but it was sometimes triggered buying being dehydrated on a hot day, then quickly drinking something very cold. As we know, potassium is important for muscle contractions, but is crucial for cardiac muscle function.


What I've never had a straight answer on is how fast Na, K, Mg, and Ca, in whatever from, are absorbed, relative to the water. Water and alcohol are the only 2 fliuds that can be absorbed directly across the gastric wall, which is why we can feel the effects of booze in only a few minutes if we drink on an empty stomach. So, when we're dehydrated on a hot day, and it's been several hours since we've eaten anything containing sodium or potassium, then we skull a sports drink, the water is getting in there pretty much immediately, but how longs is it until the electrolytes are absorbed? Hmmmmmmmm.....

Have I missed something???

I love Ric Stern like Bill Lawry loves Merv.

In the end it comes down to whatever works for you. The important component in any sport drink is the.....WATER. no water, no ride long time. simple. Lack of water = dry mouth, cracked lips, severe headache, muscle cramping, intenstinal cramping, hallucinations, fainting, convulsions & siezures, renal failure, heart failure, death.

I do believe it was me who dealt a swift blow to the rockmuncher handle. He's just a tool.

Read Graeme Obrees Flying Scotsman book and the section on 'Going Jamming'!

No money so they went on huge long rides with only jam pieces (sandwiches).

Almost suffered all of those, up to heart failure :o

Geez Jocko. For a non beer drinking poof, you sure do know about your fluids. :p

But seriously (or not) you missed the most important benefit to sports drinking. Hot water induces vomit. Hot sportdrinks induces memories of your missuses herbal tea that you've learnt to keep down if you want some love that night. ;)

Hey, I know it's a long shot but any of you fellas know anything about this computer? I think it's called a Marwi Union XR and it's got readings for bike crap, cadence and heart rate. See, I need a lot of information to foucus my attention on instead of getting the hump on how crappy I'm riding at the minute. Thinking that should have enough bells and whistles to keep me interested if the thing does in fact work. Then again, it's going to be a chrissie present so I might send the family broke and get them to get me a Polar S720i. ;)

try athleticedge.net.au for cheap hrms

http://www.fastboards.com/boards/boa...&id=1131680044

heres a stroy of a guy that nearly bought it at the gravity 12 hour this year.

so when I go down to Terrigal to bash some lebos this weekend, should I drink water, gatorade or beer? :)

i say beer, its been fueling aussie bogans for the past 200 odd years.....

What kind of Aussie are you, that you would even have to ask? :beer:

Wow! Now that's a story for ya! Especially nerve-wracking considering I did a 12hr event a couple of months ago.

Although, I didn't do it solo like that wacker....and when I feel that knackered, I have a tendancy to...well....stop. For ages. And whinge.

the whingeing is most important, it helps supplant some of your misery onto innocent bystanders, which is always good for making you feel better.

LOL, too true.

Seriously......is it on again this weekend???

Sydney's like another country at the moment....

We got a warning that it may happen at Nobby's.

Welcome to Newcastle!